I watched the Canucks lose a shootout to the Islanders on Monday evening at Nassau Veteran's Memorial Coliseum and found the Vancouver sextet competitive, but hardly overwhelming. Yes, Roberto Luongo is a legitimate Vezina Trophy candidate, but then again, so is Henrik Lundqvist. Plus, Henny wins more games than Roberto and, hey, Luongo couldn't even defeat Joey MacDonald in the showdown shootout duel.

The curious thing about the Canucks is that their beat writers believe they are a better team than they showed on the ice in Uniondale. On Game Day, both Vancouver papers treated the Islanders game as a virtual exhibition in preparation for the real test at MSG. And for a short while, they appeared to know something that The Maven didn't know. But Scott Gordon's Isles, if nothing else, compete. They overcame an early (MacDonald's fault) goal, scraped together a tying counter and extended the Canucks to the shootout where Luongo faltered and MacDonald did not.

Who the hell was insinuating that the Canucks-Islanders game was a virtual exhibition game for Vancouver? Not the Canucks Nation Blog, which Fischler was linking to. Whatever. He's high on the Rangers, who don't play 100% good hockey but still win. If anything, he has the ego here. I don't think many Canucks fans or writers develop that until we win between 6-10 in a row. We're too high on BC pot here to develop an ego. I kid...for the most part.

I'm sorry, but I don't think I could handle watching Markus Naslund salute the Rangers crowd if they win. I don't even want him to put up a single point. That would make me hate him even more. We HAVE to beat these guys. There is talk out there that Curtis Sanford might play the Rangers and Luongo play the Wild the following night. For selfish reasons I would hope not. However, we do need our best goalie to play against a division rival. Stay tuned on that.Alex Edler is no longer quarantined. He has recovered from the flu and will return against the NYR.

New York has the best fans in the world, and anyone who says different is kidding themselves. And at the top of that heap are Rangers' fans. They are some of the most passionate, the most loyal, the most supportive and, at times, the most harshly judgmental fans in all the world.

I don't think he reads much media on this side of the continent.First Malik, now Rozsival. No love for D-men on Broadway unless their last name is Leetch, I guess.

Demitra practicing with the SedinsI'm not a big fan of this move, if he plays on the top line again tonight. I know we are paying Pavol the big bucks and he is a top line guy in general, but I preferred seeing his success with Kyle Wellwood over the jive with the Sedins. The Dank-Hank-Pank line leaves Wellwood playing with underachieving guys like Bernier, Pyatt or Raymond. Raymond is pointless in 5 games now I believe. According to the Van Sun he was practicing on the 4th line yesterday. We'll see where he ends up tonight.

Mitchell defends Naslund's leadership

I miss him here because he was an exceptional teammate. He’d do anything for any of the guys. He really cared about what his teammates wanted. People didn’t see that part. People said: ‘Not enough energy, not enough passion, blah blah blah.’ Well, BS; he had that. He just showed it in different ways. (Vancouver Sun)

OK fine, Willie. But those ways weren't on the ice then. We see what he does on the ice...and it lacked passion. Not worth his paycheck in the end. Period.

FREAKY STATS FROM CANUCKS.COM1 win for the Canucks this season versus an Eastern Conference Opponent (1-3-2). The Canucks lone win versus the East came on November 15th versus the Maple Leafs.

2 wins for the Canucks this season when scoring three or fewer goals (2-6-2). That's not good, kids.

"If you look back at the last couple of home games, we haven't scored more than one or two goals, so the defense has to stay sharp," Lundqvist said. "But I like that. I like the challenge. We don't really go after the big show. We go after the two points. It doesn't matter how it looks."

This could be a 2-1 kind of game.

RANGERS' MISTER OCTOBERSThe NY Post mentioned that 2 key Ranger forwards were benched in the 3rd period during their last game against the Senators: Aaron Voros and Nikolai Zherdev. Brandon Dubinsky and Voros especially were red hot in October but have cooled off in a big way. More on Dubinsky's November woes here. Zherdev was a risky signing by the Rangers to begin with. We'll see if he can play his way out of this. Keep up the lousy play, boys!

19 Comments:

You should have heard Fischler on Monday night. He was out of control as were the Isles announcers. It took about one second after MacDonald's stop on Burrows for Jaffe (the color guy for the Isles) to bring up the Vancouver media.

A little off-topic, but I found this kind of interesting. I remember watching the Ruutu Shootout attempt with you the other night, and had wondering whether it would have counted:

It was interesting to see the New York Rangers get all bent out of shape when Ottawa Senator Jarkko Ruutu fired the puck at goalie Henrik Lundqvist from a bad angle after initially losing control of it on a shootout attempt last night.

The Rangers were so incensed at what seemed like Ruutu being Ruutu that a few of them even tried to get at the abrasive Finn when the shootout was complete and they had to be restrained by the on-ice officials.

Well, guess what?

If Ruutu had scored on that bad-angle and seemingly late shootout shot, it would have counted.

If it goes into a shootout, I would hope the Canucks do a little better this time.

Temujin - I would love that score. Me thinks this will go to the OT or shootout. Or be like a 1-0 game. And I'm a bit concerned my ticket says "limited view" on it...it'd be funny if I'm behind a concrete post.

"Yeah there is all this talk about the Rangers being first in the East, but look at how many games they have played compared to everyone else. And look at the Capitals and Penguins' records over their last 10 games compared to the Rangers."

Look at The Bruins record over the last 10 games 8-1-1! Tops in the league - Capitals and Penguins????

I like these mega-posts. It keeps me coming back to see more updates. Are you watching the game at home tonight? Want some company? I'm heading to the Kemess minesite tomorrow morning and won't be back until late Saturday night :-( It would be good to kick your ass in NHL '09 before I go.

Jimmy Boy I apologize. The Bruins rule school, but I was only mentioning the 2nd and 3rd place teams in the East. Go B's!Tim Thomas is Luongo's bitch. Luongo is god so that makes Thomas....... an angel maybe....as far as heavenly ranking goes.